Fossgate

Property in Fossgate constituted the earliest endowments of the new guild of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, including of course the site of the Hall. In 1356 Sir William Percehay (Percy) granted a plot of land in the street, lying in breadth between Trichour Lane and the river Foss, to John Freboys, John de Crome and Robert de Smeton, York merchants who were involved with the proposed establishment of the guild (no. 40 below), and in the same year an annual rent from a tenement in Fossgate was granted to the same individuals by a York mercer, William de Grantham (no. 42). In due course, on 16 February 1357/8, after the royal licence to found the guild in the previous year (Sellers, 1 - 3), Smeton obtained Edward III's sanction to alienate in mortmain to John Freboys, the first master, and the brethren and sisters of the guild, the land and the rent (Cal.Pat.Rolls 1358-61, 9; York Memorandum Book iii, 146), and Robert's subsequent charter of enfeoffment is dated the 20 March of that year (no. 46). Additional property has been acquired in Fossgate up to the present century.